A lawsuit filed late Friday accuses the Trump administration of unlawfully shutting down the Voice of America and asks a federal court to restore the outlet that for decades has supplied news about the United States to nations around the world — including many that lack a free press of their own.
The case, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, was brought by Voice of America reporters, Reporters Without Borders and a handful of unions against the U.S. Agency for Global Media and Kari Lake, the failed Arizona candidate who is President Trump’s representative there.
“In many parts of the world, a crucial source of objective news is gone, and only censored state-sponsored news media is left to fill the void,” the lawsuit said.
Lake has described the broadcast agency as a “giant rot” that needs to be stripped down and rebuilt.
Voice of America dates to World War II as a source of objective news, often beamed into authoritarian countries. Funded by Congress, it is protected by a charter that guarantees its product pass muster for journalistic rigor.
The lawsuit charges that the Trump administration has effectively shut it down unlawfully in the past week. Republicans have complained that the news source is infected by left-wing propaganda, a contention its operators say isn’t backed up factually.
“The second Trump administration has taken a chainsaw to the agency as a whole in an attempt to shutter it completely,” the lawsuit said. There was no immediate response Friday to a request for comment from the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America and a handful of sister networks.
In an interview with Newsmax earlier this week, Lake described Voice of America as “like having a rotten fish and trying to find a portion that you can eat.”
In a post on X, she said the Agency for Global Media is “a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer — a national security risk for the nation — and irretrievably broken. While there are bright spots within the agency with personnel who are talented and dedicated public servants, this is the exception rather than the rule.”
Clayton Weimers, executive director of Reporters Without Borders in the United States, said his organization was compelled to act to protect Voice of America and the broader press freedom community.
At VOA’s sister operation, Radio Free Asia, unpaid furloughs took effect on Friday for roughly 240 people in the operation’s Washington office, or 75% of the staff members, spokesman Rohit Mahajan said. Radio Free Asia has also moved to cancel freelance contracts with people who helped the agency gather news overseas.
Radio Free Asia also expects to file a lawsuit to keep congressionally-appropriated funding flowing, Mahajan said.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty filed suit on Tuesday, asking the U.S. District Court in Washington to compel the U.S. Agency for Global Media to make its next payment. RFE/RL currently broadcasts in 23 countries across Europe and Asia, in 27 different languages.
In its lawsuit, the organizations called the denial of funding unprecedented and said it has already forced operations to be significantly scaled back. “Without its congressionally appropriated funds, RFE/RL will also be forced to stop the vast majority of its journalistic work and will be at risk of ceasing to exist as an organization,” they argued.
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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social